Event of the Winter Season?

[WEATHER53]

I would have to say yes, that considering it is NC and SC that this trumps the early December event that pounded Boston.

[JCT777]

I agree. Great storm for most of NC, upstate SC, NE GA and parts of southern VA.

[wxbrad]

From a historic stand point got to be the best storm so far, condsidering the local. So far it's the 3rd biggest in charlotte history and after the morning snow may be #2.

[Stephanie]

From a historic stand point got to be the best storm so far, condsidering the local. So far it's the 3rd biggest in charlotte history and after the morning snow may be #2.

I saw that on the news this morning and the other historic storms that occurred for down there weren't even recent!

Enjoy it guys! Looks like it'll be melting pretty quickly.

[nystate]

Event of the winter season for the entire US?

I would say that would have to go to the 7 feet of snow that fell on Oswego County NY in a period of about 3 days.

Second would be the December Northeast storm.

This would be a close third.

[JCT777]

Good point, nystate. But this storm was DEFINITELY the event of the season for the mid-Atlantic/southeast - basically anywhere in the east that is south of DC.

[nystate]

Good point, nystate. But this storm was DEFINITELY the event of the season for the mid-Atlantic/southeast - basically anywhere in the east that is south of DC.

I agree...for the southeast, this ranks pretty high in the record books.

[JQ Public]

i think most of the carolina's have had an historic storm in the past 5 years. just amazing how snowy our winters haave been lately. we had 5 different snow/wnter storms come thru this winter! 4 in feb

[HuffWx]

Hey Oswego,

Saw this late...


I know it was a crippling event over your area, but it is somewhat more expected to see 5 feet near the lakes then 20 inches in NC...


I would love to live near oswego!

Huff

[nystate]

I would love to live near oswego!

Huff

I like living here, but it is very frustrating for a snow lover like myself when Oswego county, just 20 miles to the south gets from 5-7 feet of snow, and at my home I pick up just an inch or two from the same storm. Although Jefferson county can get some hefty snow amounts with a southwest wind, it just didn't pan out this winter and we ended up about 90 inches behind last year's total.

Going back to your original point- I agree. I used to live in NC (Fayetteville) and the havoc an unexpected snow creates there would be hard to rival. Up here we have a large stockpile of plows, blowers, and road salt, but down in the south they just aren't prepared, and 20 inches can create a large problem for the cities and towns of the deep south.

[michsnowfreak]

The Plains had 3 storms of 10"+ from Jan 25-Feb 5....while that cant be called one event, it seems that could be the winner. Omaha had about 12" from the first 2 events and 6" from the last 2. This is coming after several light-snowfall winters out there. lol we always forget about our friends out there because there are very few of them on the board!

I kind of have to agree that the Oswego event is #1. Yes Oswego is expected to have tons of snow, and NC/SC is not, but I think you have to go with magnitude of the event, and Oswego would win.

The Michigan snowstorm of January 14th, a clipper that slammed MI but left other areas almost untouched could be in the top 5 events of the winter if you want to count unpredictability. Here in Michigan, naturally we too get plenty of snow so I don't know if this would count because the totals were certainly not at all unheard of, but when the storm had already arrived, predictions were sitting at 2-4" for Detroits northern suburbs, and 1-3" for northern lower MI. Most of those areas end up with 8-12". Thats quite a surprise, as there was no model support for such widespread heavy accums. Not to mention the storm was more north than expected. Detroit and its south suburbs were predicted to be the winners with 3-5", and while even that area got more than expected (4-7") they ended up being the losers in that snow game. But for those folks well north of me, I think waking up to predictions as low as 1" and getting as high as 12" is quite a shock!

[michsnowfreak]

Omaha had about 12" from the first 2 events and 6" from the last 2

lol my bad typing...they had 12" from each of the first 2 events, and 6" from the third event.

[HuffWx]

Hey Jefferson County,

I have storm chased in your area...What town are you in? Spent a night in Watertown a few years back for a LES event. Drove through the tug and saw 4-5 ft snowpack!

This was not the winter for the SW. BUF did not have a huge event either while usually at least once that SW flow gets BUF with a good foot or so. What sucks even more is that LES is so dry, 1 inch could be gone in a day with sun and 13 degrees!

Huff

[nystate]

Hey Jefferson County,

I have storm chased in your area...What town are you in? Spent a night in Watertown a few years back for a LES event. Drove through the tug and saw 4-5 ft snowpack!

This was not the winter for the SW. BUF did not have a huge event either while usually at least once that SW flow gets BUF with a good foot or so. What sucks even more is that LES is so dry, 1 inch could be gone in a day with sun and 13 degrees!

Huff

I'm in Watertown....

It's interesting that you decided to chase here. The Tug certainly is the place for snow lovers to visit if they want to see some hefty amounts. Did you drive through Montague while you were here? Its about 30 miles SE of Watertown. I came across this article about Montague(written in '02) while searching old news reports. It's pretty interesting...

http://www.syracuse.com/news/syrnewspapers/index.ssf?/newsstories/20020107_rnsnow.html

Montague scoffs gently at snow cities

Monday, January 7, 2002

By Mike McAndrew




Buffalo gets 81.6 inches of snow over five days and it's prime-time national news.

President Bush declares a state of emergency, the National Guard is called out, roads are closed, and the federal government pledges $5 million in aid for snow removal.

But when 127 inches of snow (that's more than 10½ feet) fell between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day in the Lewis County town of Montague, it wasn't considered a state of emergency. It was considered a state of, well, normal.

Montague, a town of 108 residents, is used to blizzards.

The town often records 300 inches or more of snow per season, much of it in the form


of lake-effect squalls blowing east off Lake Ontario, said Tom Schmidt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in relatively balmy Buffalo.

"We are the snow capital," declared Nicole Thisse, a barmaid at the Montague Inn.

An 82-mile drive northeast from Syracuse, Montague consists of about 45 houses, a few bars and a town highway garage. There is no post office. There are no convenience stores, no motels.

Sunday, there was about 5 to 6 feet of hard-packed snow on the ground. And it was snowing again, albeit just flurries.

The National Weather Service's five-day forecast for Montague: snow showers today, cloudy Tuesday, snow showers Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

But snow is so common here that few people were talking about the weather in the Montague Inn, said Sue Lucas, the owner. And nobody was wearing T-shirts boasting "I survived the blizzard of 2001-02."

Survival is what's expected in this winter wonderland.

"We know how to deal with it up here. We're used to it. It's a way of life, a source of pride for us," Lucas said.

The Tug Hill Plateau, where Montague is located, is the snowiest place east of the Rockies.

New York state's record snowfall for a season was set in 1976-77 in Montague, when 466.9 inches of snow fell. Montague also holds the record for the most snow in 24 hours: 77 inches in January 1997.

This season's big storm has drawn thousands of snowmobilers to this town. "Every year we come up here to snowmobile," said Shawn Harris of West Clarksville, which is 80 miles south of Buffalo.

As for Buffalo, even folks in the Lewis County village of Constableville, near Montague, where a mere 102 inches of snow fell during the storm, are chuckling over the attention that city is receiving.

"Eighty-one inches?," said Gerald Morczek, who plows Constableville's roads and measures snowfall for the National Weather Service. "We'd handle that, no problem."